Weapons Man

Michael Smith came this close (Maxwell Smart finger sign) to getting shot Tuesday morning, when a tree-cutting crew stomped noisily on to his property in Norridgewock, Maine.

Smith, who works nights, got half-dressed, came out and told them to take off so he could go back to sleep. They took off, but one of them saw a Beretta stuffed into his belt, and called police, saying they’d been threatened by a man with a gun.

The Maine State Police responded cautiously. They surrounded the place with AR-armed troopers, and sent a couple of brave county deputies to the door to talk the man with the gun out. A tired Smith put his pants on again and came out:

No harm, no foul. The police made no attempt to “disarm” Smith of his tattooed-on half gun. For what it’s worth,  he says he’s never had trouble over his tat before, but then, he’s never come out shirtless and told a work crew to F off before. (They were trimming trees along utility lines, something normally done in the fall in New

This isn’t like anything we’ve ever seen before. As you know, apart from the gun thing (and the car thing, plane thing, tool thing, 3D printer thing, etc., etc.,) we’ve got an animal thing going around this place. Cruelty to animals gets to us. We tell ourselves we are as indifferent to cats as they are to us, but when a stray, who moved in and made three years with him pretty entertaining, moved out (or worse), we grieved. So when we saw this tease to a comic, Written in the Bones:

…we had to click the link and Read The Whole Thing™. And we’re not all that huge on comics.

It’s the story of two greyhounds mourning their puppy. We looked around illustrator Carey Pietsch’s website and she’s a very talented young artist and storyteller (although in this case she’s illustrating another’s

WaPo caption: A North Korean-flagged tanker is docked at the Es Sider export terminal in Ras Lanuf March 8, 2014. Libya threatened on Saturday to bomb a North Korean-flagged tanker if it tried to ship oil from a rebel-controlled port, in a major escalation of a standoff over the country’s petroleum wealth. The rebels, who have seized th

In a roundup of gun industry news, the Gun Mag (a newish online pub sponsored by the take-no-prisoners 2nd Amendment Foundation) noted a rare good deed done by the characters at ATF. Specifically, they allowed licensed importers to avoid filing a new Form 6 when an importation takes longer than a year (which, in this highly regulated international market, happens all the freaking time). The related excerpt is here :

Meanwhile, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) recently published a new Final Rule that, effective April 8, 2014, extends the standard term of import defense articles from one year to two years.

The additional time will allow importers sufficient time to complete the importation of the authorized commodity. In addition, it will eliminate the need for the importer to submit a new import application, ATF Form 6, where the importation was not completed within the one-year period. The National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF), the trade association for the firearms and ammunition industry, supported the change because it will significantly benefit both ATF and US imp

This story at Popular Mechanics is somewhat grandiosely titled, “Everything You Need to Know to Start 3-D Printing.” While it might not contain everything you need to know, it is a pretty good description of one guy’s trials and errors getting started, and it has a helpful sidebar that shows some of the currently available printers and their pros and cons. Here’s a taste:

Before investing in my own printer, I decided to get some experience on someone else’s. I asked around at my local co-working space, Tigerlabs, in Princeton, N.J., and found a tenant who let me use his MakerBot Replicator 2 in exchange for a couple of the rockets I hoped to make and a generous spool of printer filament (about $50).

3D printers build things by depositing successive layers of material, a process called additive manufacturing. Most use a mechanism that’s lik

Ask SF soldiers about Lee Mize, and they’ll often say he was the best soldier they ever knew. Like many early SF soldiers, he came out of the dress-sharp, act-sharp ethos of the Airborne Infantry Regiments. He also came to SF with something most SF men don’t have: a hard-earned (there is no other kind) Medal of Honor.

Ola “Lee” Mize passed away on March 12th. He is remembered with fondness and great respect by the entire Regiment of which he was a Distinguished Member.

He served in many key Infantry and Special Forces positions, commanded a Mike Force in Vietnam, and commanded the Special Forces school. He is remembered as a particularly demanding commander of that school that has never had an undemanding commander. He was the original founder of the SF Combat Diver School, often considered the toughest school in SF.

He is also remembered as a man who devoted great efforts in his old age to taking care of less fortunate veterans. Ever in life did he set the example.

He will be remembered and celebrated in all the places that tales of valor and service are told, for as long as men stand to their duty and nations are upheld by their me

Chris Cook of EP Armory

The ATF recently raided the manufacturer of a polymer 80% AR lower, EP Armory, after issuing a letter of determination that the item was indeed a firearm. They confiscated the entire inventory and also their real goal, the customer list. MAC at The Bang Switch was bemused:

Who knows what the G-men are ferreting for, one can only speculate. What I do know is that a fine, and highly arbitrary, line exists between a 80% complete lower and a receiver that’s considered to be a firearm in the eyes of our overlords. Could this be related to the nebulous methods used by the BATF to define 80% lowers? <shrug>

Perhaps Mr. Cook was up to something shady. Perhaps it’s the ATF that’s up to something shady and they’re after copies of EP Armory’s sales records… We won’t know until the ATF breaks their silence, or if charges are ultim

Where are you today? We find ourselves in the lower stratosphere for about 19 hours out of 24.

But at the end of it all, home beckons. There is that.

So there’s this whiny post from last October, complaining that the blogger’s husband got sacked from a job for being a felon. We’ll let the loyal wife, one Cait Boyce, pluck at your heartstrings for a minute before we drop Thor’s Own Truth Hammer on her little sob session.

But last week, while laying flooring, he and his friend were discussing falconry as they worked. The owner of the property seemed thrilled about the conversation and soon stopped leaving the room. He asked questions about the sport as the two friends worked and Chris explained that they flew Gyrfalcons. So the day ended, happy homeowner and his new floor, and two tired workers.

The homeowner decided he was curious enough about falconry and Gyrfalcons to sit at his computer and Google what the three had discussed. Then the inevitable happened. After just a bit of searching, his eyes landed on a video of one of the men who had worked in his home all

You’ll see why we didn’t finish the sentence in the title. And why there’s no picture with this post. Remember yesterday, when we were complaining that the statewide Gun Free Zone that is California was full of depravity, because someone was spearing cats with field-point target arrows? Well, today it’s worse: somebody’s spearing a dog, and he’s not using arrows.

Twice in recent months, the dog’s owner heard his pet shriek during the night in the backyard in the 1900 block of Summerland Avenue. He suspected she was reacting to a prowler. The owner then installed video equipment and was horrified Nov. 10 when he discovered what was on video from earlier that morning. He watched as a man fed the dog something, causing the animal to relax, and sexually assaulted her.

via Mother of San Pedro man accused of sex with dog says she’s sorry.

True, this is an old case (from November). But hey, it lets us bag on SoCal when it’s mid-March here and still in the single digits (F) at night.

While we had before and after pics of Princess the speared cat, kindly bear with is for having no images (and definitely no

You really don’t think of the National Guard as a very corrupt organization. Political? Hell, yeah, politics of both the Democans-vs.-Republicrats spoils-seeking kind, and the Mean Girls office-backstabbing kind. But not, you know, the stealing or scamming-money kind of corrupt.

Well, if he’s convicted as charged, you’re going to have to make a mental exception for this guy:

An Air National Guard colonel used his high-ranking position to defraud the military of “hundreds of thousands of dollars,” U.S. Attorney David Hickton said on Wednesday.

Investigators from the Air Force and the FBI documented amounts exceeding “$200,000 and approaching $300,000,” he said, predicting the figure will grow.

“With all that is going on in the world … it is particularly repugnant that someone would steal from the Air Force in a manner such as this,” Hickton said.

Agents arrested Col. Gerard Mangis, 60, of Shaler on Wednesday on 110 counts of conspiracy, wire fraud, filing false claims with the government and theft of government prop

That’s what Armalite admits after pulling the ad in a welter of condemnation from various official Italian sources. The ad depicts Michelangelo’s David armed with the David’s Sling of today, a .50-caliber sniper rifle. (The image embiggens).

Here’s a brief take from National Review:

The gun maker ArmaLite ran an ad as part of its “A Work of Art” campaign that features Michelangelo’s David holding a sniper rifle and has come under fire for it — from the Italian government, which owns the statue and claims it’s intellectual property.

In response to the ad, Italian culture minister Dario Franceschini recently tweeted, ”The advertisement image of an armed David offends and violates the law. We will act against the American company to make sure it withdraws the campaign immediately.”

Angello Tartuferi, director of the Accademia Gallery in Florence, where the statue is on display, told La Repubblica newspaper that Italy owned the copyright to David, saying “the law says that the aestheti

Long time readers of this blog know that if there’s one thing that winds us up, it’s bad cops, cops who abuse their position and badge, or cops who are criminals in uniform.

Thank God those are a tiny minority among cops.

And if there’s one thing that winds us up, it’s animal cruelty. So this asshat rang all our bells Wednesday.

Officers from the Montgomery County Police-Animal Services Division on Wednesday arrested Alec Eugene Taylor, 27, of Silver Spring, for intentionally and cruelly killing a seven-month-old puppy. Taylor is being charged with aggravated animal cruelty and abuse or neglect of an animal.

Last Friday, at approximately 11:10 a.m., police officers and animal services officers were called to a residence in the 13800 block of Castle Boulevard in Silver Spring. The complainant, Taylor’s girlfriend, said Taylor had beaten and killed their seven-month-old Jack Russell Terrier named Rocko.

An investigation revealed that on Feb. 26 at approximately 4:30 p.m.,

This Tahoe, with missing cladding, is wanted for questioning in the ammo theft. Looks like the shot was from a gas station camera. But if these guys are criminals, what odds it’s stolen?

The ammo was secured: in a trailer, which was locked three ways: wheels, tongue, and back door/gates. And a gang of criminals proved the old adage that “locks keep honest men out” (and displayed the fact that they were not honest men), when they boldly drove up in a scraggly Tahoe, made short work of the locks, and made off with the whole freakin’ trailer. At their leisure, they transshipped the ammo inside to another trailer (which, itself, was stolen from U-Haul — if you need any more proof we’re dealing with criminals here).

All the thieves had to do was drive off with their ill-gotten goods.

“The wheels were locked. The back gates were locked. The t

“Princess,” one of the two slain cats in North Long Beach..

As seems increasingly common, these stories of depravity seem to come from places where guns are already outlawed, or at least, irrationally restricted. Make of that what you will, but this one took place in Southern California, where assault-weapon bans, “bullet buttons,” may-issue-but-not-to-the-likes-of-you pistol permits, and a generous social safety net hammock, have eliminated all causes of crime, and brought us into the new sunlit dawn of the New Soviet Man. Or something.

Except for the one paradise-dweller who didn’t get the word, and spends his days reenacting the Little Big Horn, with neighbors’ cats playing the role of Yellow Hair.

Long Beach Animal Care Services and police officers are searching for the person or people who used arr

Three chirpy people who are each paid about what a rifle squad in the Army or Marines draws, stood up in a Pentagon pressroom March 4th to defend a significantly flawed document, the Quadrennial Defense Review for 2014, and the Pentagon budget request for 2015. Fortunately for them, the government-controlled press are incurious and deferential, as long as The Party remains in the presidential palace.

The three were: Robert F. Hale, the Defense Department’s comptroller; Christine E. Wormuth, deputy undersecretary for strategy, plans and force development; and Air Force Lt. Gen. Mark F. Ramsay, Joint Staff director for force structure, resources and assessments.

Steve Jobs used to say that if your business card said “strategy” or “strategic” on it, you ought to be let go. But what’s more efficient, really, the E Ring of the Pentagon or Apple, Inc.?

Yeah, when you answered that question, you got the same answer we got.

First we’ll give you some of the spin from the Alvin of these

On Armalite’s website, they have a section of Tech Notes which is quite useful. Of course, it’s intended to help them sell their AR clones and other rifles, but a lot of it is of quite general application for and by anybody.

For example, they have a useful Tech Note on how to analyze performance claims in rifle marketing materials. Here’s an excerpt from that on accuracy:

Let’s say that three manufacturers (Companies AAA, BBB, and CCC) each produce 1000 M16A1 rifles. All three companies test their rifles under identical conditions. Each rifle is fired one 10-shot group with M855 military ball ammunition from a return-to-battery rest in a benign indoor range. Based on the testing, each company writes a marketing ad.

• Company AAA claims that their rifles fire group

49-year-old skydiver John Frost was lining up for a landing when something happened to him. That something was a Cessna 170, which hit his parachute canopy. Both skydiver and plane slammed to the ground, and to the amazement of passersby and the photographer who took these pictures, both survived.

It happened around 11 a.m. Saturday, when 87-year-old Sharon Trembley was doing takeoff and landing maneuvers in his private Cessna airplane from the South Lakeland Airport.

The Polk County Sheriff’s Office says that on Trembley’s third pass, the passenger-side wing of his plane became entangled in and then cut the strings of skydiving parachutist John S. Frost while they were less than 75 feet in the air.

Frost, 49, was flung

Lord love a duck, it turns out not just special ops guys are the victims of wannabes. It happens to police, too. But this guy took his imposture to great lengths, with a gun and a cop car. Judging from the mugshot and the “it isn’t legal” in the article, he’s no stranger to police procedure — at the other end of the handcuff key, that is.

At the time of the posting, the fake cop remained at large. Hey, Officer McBragg: you’re wanted — at the station.

Police this week asked the public for help finding Antonio Coddute-Farrison, 24, a man they said has a history of pretending to be a law enforcement officer.

Saturday, Feb. 15, the man went to the monthly gun show at the Evergreen State Fairgrounds, at which carrying a loaded gun is not permitted. He was asked if he was armed and said he was, but showed the security person at the door a badge and said he was an undercover detective.

Coddute-Farrison was also driving a Ford Expedition that had had bee

Ever wonder why we can’t really back the Ukraine? Because we’re cutting back, and pulling back, worldwide. Our Central Asian air hub at Manas, Kyrgyzstan, went the way of the previous one in  Khanabad Air Base, Uzbekistan: hasty pullout and abandonment of infrastructure to the natives, albeit for different reasons. (The Bush Administration withdrew from the base Americans called K2 for Karshi-Khanabad over Uzbek strongman Islam Karimov’s dreadful human rights record, and US criticism thereof).

The US presence in Kyrgyzstan produced a few lasting friendships and at least one war bride. (Probably more, but we know of one for sure). The US connections were primarily to the ethnic Russian community, who had been suffering some payback under Kyrgyz rule but still dominated certain professions.

The last Stratotanker has left the Transit Center at Manas, Kyrgyzstan, ending 12.5 years of refueling operations at the base.

The transit center’s last refueling mission landed Feb. 24, according to the Air Force. T